Ruling for former state utility regulator on damage award stands

Published
6:00 pm CST, Monday, February 20, 2006

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday let stand a federal appellate court's decision to throw out a $60 million punitive damage award won by a Texas company against former state utility regulator Jim Irvin.

The Supreme Court declined to review a July 2005 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to send the civil case against the former Arizona Corporation Commission member back to U.S. District Court in Phoenix for a judge to either reduce the punitive damages award or order a new trial on that issue.

The Supreme Court decision, which was announced in Washington, was made without comment.

Southern Union Co. of Houston was awarded the punitive damages as well as $390,072 in compensatory damages _ that part of the 2002 jury award was upheld by the 9th Circuit _ after Irvin was found to have misused his office to improperly influence the outcome of a $2 billion bidding war for Las Vegas-based Southwest Gas Corp.

Eric Herschmann, a New York lawyer representing Southern Union, did not immediately return a call for comment.

Irvin, a Republican first elected to the commission in 1996, resigned in 2003 as the Arizona House of Representatives prepared to begin impeachment proceedings in the wake of the civil court verdict.